Saturday night’s NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway will mark the 12th appearance in the annual classic for Furniture Row Racing driver Kurt Busch.
The drive to win the prestigious non-points race and the $1 million payday is something that Busch has experienced with his win in the 2010 All-Star Race.
“We feel confident that our Armed Forces Day Furniture Row/Sealy Chevrolet SS could be the magic piece to take home the million bucks,” said Busch. “The Sprint All-Star Race is always one of the highlights of the season.”
Busch’s overall All-Star Race record is: 11 starts, one win, four top-fives, six top-10s, one pole and 30 laps led. His average start is 8.1 and average finish 10.8.
Busch followed his 2010 All-Star Race win with a victory the following week at Charlotte in the Coca-Cola 600. He is one of four active drivers to have won the Charlotte double. The others are Jeff Gordon (1997), Jimmie Johnson (2003) and Kasey Kahne (2008).
Busch qualified for this year’s Sprint All-Star Race as both a former winner of the event and as a former NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion (2004).
The All-Star Race format will include five segments for the 22-car field. The first four segments will be 20 laps each at the 1.5-mile oval with the final segment totaling 10 laps. The starting position for the final segment will be based on the driver’s average finish in the first four segments.
“It comes down to the final 10-lap segment,” stated Busch. “You have to act like it’s qualifying for 10 laps and you have to ignore the other cars on the track because you have to get all the speed you can out of your own. You just have to lay down a bet if that guy is going to slide up high because you have to be in the gas digging hard if you’re going to try and get by him.
“You have to anticipate when people are going to bobble or make a slip or when you have an advantage to take care of it early. There’s a lot of gambling — that’s what I‘ve noticed. I passed five guys in two laps to win the All-Star Race three years ago. It was because I found the speed in the car for the final segment and I went into the corners attacking the track and it seemed like the seas parted for me.”
FRR PR
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